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Marsh & McLennan Agency surveyed 1,141 executives from small to middle-market organizations across North America. While almost 60% of these executives consider cyber security to be one of the top five risks facing their business, only 18% noted that their organizations have developed a cyber incident response plan. A common theme in the results is that there seems to be a gap between understanding the risk of a cyber breach and actually having a plan in place for when an incident occurs.

We’ve compiled a few of the key findings from the report. To download the full cyber risk report, click here.

Key Findings

Sixty-eight percent of respondents were concerned about business interruption posing a threat to their organization. For small to mid-size businesses, even a couple days offline could lead to significant financial damage. Cyber business interruption insurance can help minimize losses by providing funding during the network interruption.

Less than 40% of participants have performed gap assessments, phishing training, or penetration testing. These security practices are becoming more common and affordable, and some vendors and insurance policies even include these services.

Seventeen percent of those surveyed are not confident in their organization’s ability to manage, respond, and recover from a cyber incident. When asked about their confidence level, 6% indicated that they were unsure about their own company’s abilities. However, organizations that took preventative measures were more confident in their ability to handle an attack.

Thirty-six percent of executives don’t know what their organization is doing about cyber insurance. Of the 36% of respondents that have cyber insurance, none planned to discontinue their coverage.

With the Super Bowl only a few days away, both teams are undoubtedly using every minute to prepare for the upcoming game. In 2015, we watched the defeat of the Seattle Seahawks after they ignored the most obvious play they could make to win the game. With twenty-five seconds remaining and one yard left to go, the Seahawks passed the ball instead of utilizing their star running back. What happened next will be discussed and debated by football fans for years to come. New England Patriots’ newbie, Malcom Butler, intercepted the ball for the game-winning play.

Just like in sports, businesses sometimes over think their choices, missing the most obvious play. Today, the obvious, smart play for all businesses is to have cyber liability coverage and a plan to address a cyber-breach. Yet, even with the awareness of the threat of cyber-breach, many businesses still haven’t taken action. Ignoring this easy safeguard could lead you to a big blunder, leaving your customers wondering why the most obvious route wasn’t taken, just as Seahawks fans questioned why their team didn’t utilize one of their best assets.